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Accusing ASUÛ leaders of sustaining the on-going strike by blackmail, threat and feeding members with lies about government’s efforts at resolving the industrial action, some Presidency officials told Vanguard that the Federal Government has implemented five out of the seven issues on the Memorandum of Action, MoA, it signed with the leaders of ASUU in December 2020 and has paid not less than N92.27billion as Earned Academic Allowances, EAA, among others to ASUU members before embarked on strike.

This is different from the N304 billion from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund TETFUND for 2021 and first quarter of 2022.

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According to them, “the universities received N25 billion for all their staff in May 2022 arising from the consequential adjustment of the 2019 minimum wage. What this means is that every staff of the Federal Government was given 10 per cent increase as against what he or she was earning before the new minimum wage.”

One of the officials said: “The Federal Government paid ASUU N40 billion EAA as Earned Allowance in January/February 2021 for 2020. The government also paid N22.27 billion for 2021 mainstreamed into 2021 budget as promised to ASUU in the MoA. Similarly, N30 billion was paid in June 2021 for Revitalisation as contained in the MoA, amounting to about N92.27billion.

“On the issue of ASUU’s University Transparency Accountability Solution, UTAS, as against the Federal Government’s Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System, IPPIS, UTAS, has been tested since 2021. While it passed USER Acceptance, it failed Integrity test. That is, it did not pass vulnerability test against hackers, stress and traffic usage/ accommodation.

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“You are aware that the other unions in the university system, especially the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions, NASU, and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, said they developed their own payment platform which they call University Peculiar Payroll and Payment System, U3PS or UPPPS. NASU and SSANU have vowed that even if UTAS is 100 percent perfect, their members would not key into it. How do you describe that? It is total confusion.

“Nevertheless, as part of efforts to resolve the issue, further tests on UTAS and UPPPS, even, the IPPIS are ongoing at the National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA. But ASUU’s insistence on the usage of UTAS whether good or bad shows how they want the matter to remain unresolved. As part of the implementation of the MoA, on the visitation panels to the universities, it has been done. The panel’s work has been concluded and its gazette will be released anytime.

“On the issue of renegotiation of 2009 agreement, another official informed that “it was actually renegotiated in 2013/ 2014 and to be reviewed every five years. The Wale Babalakin committee started the renegotiation in 2018 and left it later for Professor Munzali. Because its proposal in 2021 was not processed in the Federal Ministry of Education until October 2021, a new committee was set up headed by Professor Nimi Briggs.

Unfortunately, the committee also decided not to work with the appropriate Federal Government agencies like the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Budget Office, National Salaries Incomes and Wages Commission, Office of Head Civil Service of the Federation and Ministry of Labour and Employment that fix and recommend salaries and wages and public service Conditions of Service as proposal to the Federal Ministry of Education and Presidential Committee on Salaries and Wages.

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“However, ASUU went back to tell its members that an agreement has been drawn up. This is in bad faith as any such agreement is guided by capacity and ability to pay. The proposal’s financial implications as it affects the 44,377 lectures with about 7,000 professors when you include other staff in the universities comes to about one trillion Naira a month. The Presidential committee on Salaries chaired by the Minister of Finance as we speak is still working on a template to accommodate all in the Education sector including Polytechnics and colleges of Education.”

Lamenting, one of the sources, said: “ASUU’s habit is to intimidate everybody. Because UTAS failed integrity test, they said the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Patami ‘s Professorship should be withdrawn, accusing him of asking NITDA to fail UTAS. They also threatened to withdraw the certificate of the Director-General of NITDA from ABU. At the negotiation table, they used threat which is against ILO principles of Collective Bargaining.

They have been feeding their members with lies. As a union, you must conform to the tenets of unionism. The Labour law says once a matter has been apprehended by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, you go back to work. Go and check Section Eight of the Trade Dispute Act. It is there.”

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(Vanguard)